See 1854 map of Frankfort showing location of the Kentucky Penitentiary.

Population and Growth

From kramer1986, p. 118:

… Franklin County’s population increased from 9,420 in 1840 to 12,462 in 1850, an increase of 32.3 percent. The growth rate declined sharply during the following decade, and in 1860 the county’s population was just 12,694, a mere 2 percent increase over the previous census. Nevertheless, the county experienced an overall population increase of 34.8 percent during the two decades.

Frankfort’s growth was considerably more pronounced than the county’s as a whole, but again, most the increase occurred during the 1840s. In 1840 Frankfort’s population stood at 1,917. Ten years later it had reached 3,308, a 72.6 percent increase. The city gained a mere 394 new inhabitants during the next decade, placing the 1860 population at 3,702. Compared with 1840, this is a 93.1 percent increase.

There were also around 1,250 black residents of Frankfort in the 1850s when Zebulon Ward and Henrietta Wood arrived.¹